Part I : Location
Location. Location. Location. There is a reason it is repeated three times. It really does make a difference to everything. Don’t believe me? Well here is a case study: I am in New Zealand and not where I was born or grew up. My location changed and therefore, so has everything else. Location is important. In fact, location is tantamount. Location holds influence over the other two goals and so it is only fair that it is number one, both in importance and on the list.
First the theory. If one finds them selves in a location of positive influence and experience, then it goes without saying that one is happy. I have yet to meet someone who is having fun and yet be grumpy about it. Therefore locations influence long term happiness and I would even go so far as to dictate what type of a person you grow to. If you are happy, then you spread that around by being happy to everyone else. Which in turn means you are a happy person. I think I have said happy far to many times to ever be considered for any writing award. Ah well, there is a reason this is a blog and not in print. And there I go rambling away again.
Now for the practical. Everyone should, at one point in their life, want to leave the city or town they were born in. If they do not then they are exceptionally short sighted. This is a revelation I have come to. The body of water does not occupy one space of the ocean. It flows and ebbs with the tide, the currents and the very rotation of the earth. The very drive to move out and away is what drew the man from the caves to walk over the hill in the distance. That thinking, that spirit of adventure, of curiosity, is by nature everything it means to be human. To look at the hill and want to see the other side. To have a present and wonder what is underneath the wrapping.
A few questions I had to ask myself to come to this goal:
– Can I see myself here forever?
– Is this where I would like to be?
– Would I have chosen to come here if it was offered to me?
Asking those hard questions and finding the answer are often scary within themselves. They represent a huge change not only within the physical but within the very core of your being – a shift of priorities, a change of outlook. These are things that make people uncomfortable. It forces them to deal with who they really are as a person. Setting goals always forces introspection and location does to. Not right away but always after the event. This is culture shock – that feeling of “What have I done?”, buyers remorse, all related.
So Part One : Location. Where is my ideal location? Now, now dear reader, that would be telling, and a man always has to retain his air of mysteriousness…
